AMP/Bestop Power running board wiring HELP!

slowcoupe

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I purchased a new truck a few weeks ago. Truck has AMP/Bestop Power Boards on it. However they are wired up to extend very oddly.

The passenger and driver side doors are wired to a plunger type switch. The rear doors however are not. Kinda an inconvenience. The passenger side switch also broke off(assuming someone kicked it stepping out) so the passenger step isn't functioning.


Any electrical gurus, or someone who has wired a bunch of these give me some insight on how to route the wires to the inside door wiring so that they extend with each door being opened?
 

slowcoupe

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The steps do say both AMP/BESTOP on them. I crawled underneath and looked at the wiring and it looks to have a standard ground and power to the plunger switch.

I found some instructions for wiring the steps of the trigger wire to the door ajar wire in the front door and the one under the sill plate to the rear door with a diode.


Any ideas on how i'd need to route these black and red wires to both other wires to make these work properly.
 
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How old are these steps? Were they used? What year is the truck?

The current AMP Research steps do not operate off a plunger, they are instant using trigger from the door open wiring.
 

slowcoupe

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Not sure how old they are to be honest. They are on an 04 truck I purchased a few weeks ago. They don't look terribly old so I assumed the PO had just wired em up weird.
 

slowcoupe

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Yea that was about when I saw them released. I bought my 08' in 13' and was going to put a set on it after I got it lifted.

The steps have Bestop logo on one of the legs and in the same spot on the other side say AMP steps.
 

slowcoupe

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Any electrical gurus have any suggestions. Im gonna tackle this tomorrow. These little plungers are really starting to piss me off.
 

BK39

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This may be of no help, but I was having trouble wiring up my amp steps a while back. When I called tech support, he told me that the AMP steps would trigger off any 12v power source. Test it off any 12v source and if they triggered, the motor was good, it was just my connection where I hooked it up.

So I'm not an electrical genius( I actually hate anything electrical, it scares me) but all that told me is, these things were pretty simple, when the door opens, it sends 12v signal, step kicks down, when door closes, it shoots 12v signal again, steps retract.
 

Layson

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Never seen them off a plunger setup. I wonder if someone got creative when they wired them in..... like took a set from a newer truck and made it work for an older truck...

You may need a new wiring harness and start over.
 

dsberman94

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The steps do say both AMP/BESTOP on them. I crawled underneath and looked at the wiring and it looks to have a standard ground and power to the plunger switch.

I found some instructions for wiring the steps of the trigger wire to the door ajar wire in the front door and the one under the sill plate to the rear door with a diode.


Any ideas on how i'd need to route these black and red wires to both other wires to make these work properly.


I would imagine you could run the black wire to any ground, and the red wire to any 12v power source. So the courtesy light in the door. I don't remember if the back doors have any sort of a switch to turn on the dome lights but if they do you could run the red wire to that power wire, find it with a test light or meter.
 

slowcoupe

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Thanks for the input guys! I'm currently working on this now. Just sourcing information on which wires are which for door ajar and if hat doesn't work where the best place to tap into for 12v would be.
 

slowcoupe

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Alright so I got these wired up to the front door ajar wire. I still have to tap into the rear door wires. However upon doing so the step will engage upon opening and closing the door. But will also intermittently do it also when the door is closed. I troubleshot this on AMP website and read the inline diodes failure will cause this. I do not have an inline diode so this is the cause.


I am going to call AMP on my lunch and find out which ones need to go in place and possibly where they go as well.

If anyone has any input before then I will definitely take it. I am on the right path I just have to figure out how to keep they from deploying with the door closed now. I am using these instructions to go off of. The diode installation is step 26-27 area but am unsure where And how exactly it goes.

http://www.carid.com/images/amp-research/running-boards/pdf/75104-01a-installation-instructions.pdf
 

powerlifter405

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The 04 doesn't use plungers. You may be best off locating the wiring schematic for your truck and then compare that to the steps you have. IF they are amp steps you need to learn which model it is as they've changed controller models slightly AND ford uses reverse wiring on certain years. It's goofy, can't remember the techinal name but I cannot use or even rewire the harness from my 08 to use on my 05 because of the polarity issue/hot/ground issue and I have the wiring schematics for both.
 

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